Quotes of the day

posted at 10:39 pm on March 30, 2012 by Allahpundit

“In a general election-style speech at Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin Friday, Mitt Romney delivered one of his most fundamental critiques of Barack Obama of the campaign so far. The president, Romney said, was elected in 2008 on the strength of his personality, and despite his failures remains surrounded by true believers who are poised to attack anyone who challenges their hold on power.

“‘This is a president who was elected not on the strength of a compelling record of accomplishment but by a compelling personality and story,’ Romney said. But while the president’s persona appealed to many voters, Romney said, his actual performance in office led to widespread disappointment. Now, Romney continued, ‘though the reality has failed the hope and change he promised, [Obama] remains surrounded by true believers who attack anyone who challenges their power. And, as we see each day, they will fight even more fiercely to hold on to that power.’…

“Part of Obama’s story, Romney reminded the audience, was his time as a community organizer — an experience that Obama often cited as a key qualification for him to be elected president. But Romney said Obama’s time as an organizer taught him precisely the wrong lessons about the economy. ‘Barack Obama once said that his work as a community organizer motivated him to help ‘communities that had been ravaged by plant closings,” Romney said. ‘His desire to help others could not be more admirable, but it’s clear that he saw free enterprise as the villain and not the solution.’ The ‘ironic tragedy’ of Obama’s time in office, Romney said, ‘is that the community organizer who wanted to help those hurt by a plant closing became the president on whose watch more jobs were lost than any time since the Great Depression.’”

***

“Following a front-page Wall Street Journal article Thursday reporting that employees at Bain Capital, Romney’s former private-equity firm, were allowed to invest their retirement money in companies the firm acquired through a special share class, the Obama camp is seeking Romney’s old tax returns to see if they contain information about the investment arrangement…

“‘Today’s report raises additional questions about Gov. Romney’s manipulation of the tax laws,’ Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman, told The Journal, adding that Romney ‘may have engaged in questionable maneuvers to drive up the value of his IRA.’…

“‘The Obama campaign is playing politics, just as he’s doing in his conduct of foreign policy,’ Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul wrote. ‘Obama should release the notes and transcripts of all his meetings with world leaders so the American people can be satisfied that he’s not promising to sell out the country’s interests after the election is over.’”

***

“The conventional thinking has been that after a long and divisive primary campaign, the challenge of uniting the GOP would force Romney to pick a running mate with strong appeal to tea party activists and evangelicals. But Romney’s team thinks he may be liberated from that pressure if he can finish off remaining rivals Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in the next few weeks…

“His advisers said they do not believe geography will play all that important a role, and that he seems unlikely to choose someone to court a single state or constituency. He does not, so far, appear to have discussed the need to pick a minority or a woman, for example, to appeal to certain kinds of voters…

“‘Knowing Mitt as I do, I think he’s going to be very much of the school that we need a vice president who can become president,’ said the adviser, who like others interviewed demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the vice presidential search process.”

“At times, Mr. Obama’s top aides have openly fretted about the level of resistance they are encountering from some Democratic donors, especially in the face of the challenge posed by the pro-GOP super PACs. The president’s fundraising team has tried to highlight in stark terms what it sees as the consequences of Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney winning the White House…

“‘Too many Obama supporters are falling into a trap,’ he wrote. ‘They’re waiting to donate until we have a clear opponent. There’s too much at stake, and not enough time, to be doing that.’”

***

“The gender gap in presidential politics is not new. Democratic candidates have gotten more support from women than men for more than 30 years. Even so, Barack Obama’s advantages among women voters over his GOP rivals are striking.

“In the Pew Research Center’s most recent national survey, conducted March 7-11, Obama led Mitt Romney by 20 points (58% to 38%) among women voters. It marked the second consecutive month that Obama held such a wide advantage over Romney among women (59% to 38% in February). In both February and March, Obama ran about even with Romney among men.”

***

“President Obama is sharpening his campaign rhetoric, saying tonight that Republican plans to return to economic policies of the George W. Bush years is ‘madness.’…

“Obama prefaced that comment by saying, ‘we won’t win the race for new jobs and new businesses and middle-class security if we cling to this same old, worn-out, tired ‘you’re on your own’ economics that the other side is peddling.’”

Blowback

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Nice word choice, and a well thought out point. If you were to do a search on any of my prior post, you would see that I am not the biggest Romney fan. However, at this point, if he is our candidate, then only death could keep me from supporting him.

This site has thousands of readers, and I bet most don’t care to see all that. Please, take that stuff to private message or e-mail.

bluegill on March 31, 2012 at 8:11 AM

Umm…really? I dont see “thousands on late at night”, and if your reply is something worth retorting too…then the thread continues. This has always been the party thread…

Man, the jealousy of you newbies is to laugh at–too bad your reading ability is so inapt that you are unable to skim and skip over the parts where people are passing the bottle around…SUCK IT UP, BABYCAKES, or use the swinging door…you can get out the same way you got in…with a click…

Who doesn’t have concerns about Mitt? I would have had a hard time supporting Santorum. A terrible time actually. And I’m sure that’s what many of you feel. So I hope Romney runs a campaign worthy of support and adheres to the principles he is espousing.

Who doesn’t have concerns about Mitt? I would have had a hard time supporting Santorum. A terrible time actually. And I’m sure that’s what many of you feel. So I hope Romney runs a campaign worthy of support and adheres to the principles he is espousing.
Rusty Allen on March 31, 2012 at 2:05 PM

I think the concern is that, assuming he wins the election, adheres to those principles while governing.

Who doesn’t have concerns about Mitt?
Rusty Allen on March 31, 2012 at 2:05 PM

csdeven, blue gills, buydanishstuff, chupachudi, sheryl, petunia, jenfidel, mjbrutus…just to name a few. They will bash any non-believer into submission every chance they get. Condescending, Ungrateful and look down their nose uppity towards most potential converts.

They are also a hurdle for Romney to overcome in consolidating his support.

As far as the relaxed back and forth on QOTD threads: those threads have always trended off topic eventually, and I don’t see what the big deal is about it. HA commenters have never acted cliquish that I can recall, and anyone who wants to can chime in.

Things have gone off topic faster now on QOTD because it became about the only thread that wasn’t all acid all the time. When the massive onslaught of Romney supporters came in, almost all of them treated everyone else like scum. The other threads have been so non-stop acrimonious that the QOTD became It’s been a counterbalance to keep the entire site from spinning into irretrievable bitterness.

I would have to say INC, I think that is a close to spot on reading of where the site as a whole is. As to QOTD, no one should expect it to change anytime soon if anytime at all. It is the most enjoyable thread of the day because of its uniqueness. Commenters can comment all they want there about whatever they want including the QOTD topic. Look forward to seeing you there. ; ) Oh and don’t forget to bring a tune. ; )

There are cliques in all circles. They exist here the same way they did, for example, high school. As with high school they come and go and are reinvented at other points down the road. For the record I detest cliques.

Bmore, thanks. My knowledge of rock ended in the early 80s. You may have missed it, because I think I’ve only mentioned it once or twice, but I’m severely hearing impaired. I can converse without a problem, but music has been far more difficult because your brain needs the stereophonic sound of two ears to process music. Don’t ask me why; one of my docs told me this a long time ago, and I’ve forgotten all he said. So as you describe it, I’ll “sit in the bleachers” for the most part.

csdeven, blue gills, buydanishstuff, chupachudi, sheryl, petunia, jenfidel, mjbrutus…just to name a few. They will bash any non-believer into submission every chance they get. Condescending, Ungrateful and look down their nose uppity towards most potential converts.

They are also a hurdle for Romney to overcome in consolidating his support.

cozmo on March 31, 2012 at 2:29 PM

Actually that’s a good alibi. We are already free from guilt of not voting Romney. After all, we have already received our punishment in advance, i.e., our own share of bashing from the “wise” GOP-Errs.

So blaming us further for the inevitable loss of the Great “He earned it” Romney to Teh 1 won’t stick anymore. I’m expecting that by November, many conservatives like me (10% is too low) will have a field day for showing our huge grins … telling the others “I told you so!”

Thanks. I did not know that. Or if I did I had forgotten. My memory sorta ended around the 70′s./ So no enjoyment at all from music? I’m not being a smart a$$ with this next comment, just curious. Any improvement in enjoyment when the tune is in mono?

I don’t think having one or two speakers outside your head makes a difference, it’s having two ears both sending simultaneous sound waves to your brain. In fact, I’ve found that when trying to hear or “learn” new music being in a car with speakers (front and back) seems to work the best to help me not miss something. My own “surround sound”! There’s a huge difference when I hear old tunes that are already embedded in my memory because what I miss, my brain fills in!

It’s not volume that makes the difference, because with hearing loss there’s also loss of clarity of distinguishing sounds. I don’t know how to describe it, but sometimes words become “sticky” and hard to break apart. Cadence and speed of speaking can make a difference. Music throws more sounds into the mix!

New songs are much more difficult to “learn.” I have to “grasp” the melody and make sense of it. Hearing is lost in different proportions across frequencies, and that means some tunes will be harder to pick up. The hearing aid I have now picks up about 10Khz frequencies. That sounds like a lot, but the human ear can hear up to 20Khz. Here’s the shocker: the one I have was only developed about 3 years ago, and I believe just about doubled the frequencies most hearing aids could pick up. That tells you some of what hearing loss can mean.

My audiologist had me listen to some classical music with two types of hearing aids. I could tell the difference. Those extra frequencies make a real difference in sound.

If there are words, I also have to “grasp” the words. Everyone can have trouble understanding some words, but for me it helps if I know or can read the lyrics.

Then there’s the matter of not causing further loss by traumatizing my ears with loud sound. Sometimes lower sound volume means I can’t pick up enough of what’s going on across frequencies to make sense of the song, and as I said above, sometimes higher sound volume doesn’t help. Add to that the fact that as a consequence of ear surgery I have tinnitus that increases with volume. So rock has gone pretty much by the wayside for me, and for most music I have to work really hard in my listening.

I’ve loved music and sang in choirs for numerous years. I have used music quite a bit on my blog, but it’s been older hymns or Christian songs with melodies that I know or have made the effort to “learn.” I know how music can touch the heart and express the heart. It’s been both frustrating and a big loss. As an aside, although I’m not a soloist my daughter is a beautiful vocalist and having her voice to hear has helped compensate for my loss.